Entrepreneurial Students from 49 Universities Come to TCU April 10-11 for Values-Based Business Competition

Combine making a profit with doing something meaningful, and you get brilliant ideas from students around the world for TCU’s Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures® Business Plan Competition.

March 30, 2015

By Elaine Cole

Students from a record 49 universities are coming to TCU April 10-11 to compete for more than $70,000 in total cash prizes in the 5th annual Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures® Business Plan Competition (www.neeley.tcu.edu/vandv). More than 50 business and civic leaders will serve as judges and mentors.

Each year, TCU’s Neeley Entrepreneurship Center invites entrepreneurial-minded college students to compete for the best plan that incorporates values, ethics and/or service into a for-profit business. The competition, founded by the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center and real estate entrepreneurs Nancy Tartaglino Richards and Lisa Barrentine, began in 2011 with six schools competing.

All 49 teams will present in the Brown-Lupton University Union at TCU on Friday, April 10, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in seven simultaneous flights. The top team from each flight will advance to the final competition Saturday, April 12. The second place teams from each flight will compete in a lightning round Friday, 2:00-5:00 p.m., and the top two teams chosen from the lightning round will advance to the finals on Saturday. All nine finalist teams will complete on Saturday, April 11, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Adding another chance to win, all teams will choose one representative to compete in an elevator pitch competition, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Prizes are $25,000 for the Grand Prize, $15,000 for Second Place, $10,000 for Third Place, $5,000 for a special Founders Award and six Honorable Mentions for $2,500 each. For the Elevator Pitch Competition, prizes are $1,000 for First Place, $500 for Second, $250 for Third and three Honorable Mentions for $100 each.

Participating schools for 2015 are:

Appalachian State UniversityArizona State UniversityBrown UniversityDePaul University Drexel University Florida State UniversityGeorge Washington UniversityGeorgetown UniversityGrand Valley State UniversityIowa State UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityLehigh University Loyola Marymount UniversityNorthern Kentucky UniversityNorwich UniversityOhio UniversityPrairie View A&M UniversityRoyal Roads University Saint Leo UniversitySamford University San Diego State University Seton Hall University Southern Methodist University Southern University and A&M College St. Mary’s University

Syracuse UniversityTarleton State UniversityTexas Christian University United States Air Force Academy University of ArizonaUniversity of ArkansasUniversity of British ColumbiaUniversity of Calgary University of California-IrvineUniversity of ChicagoUniversity of Dhaka/Bangladesh University of Professionals University of Houston University of Houston-Victoria University of Iowa University of North TexasUniversity of Southern Mississippi University of StrathclydeUniversity of Tampa University of Texas at DallasUniversity of Virginia University of Wisconsin- WhitewaterVillanova UniversityWalsh UniversityWilliam Paterson University